Photo: Ken Lund from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0About half of Sparks’ working residents commute to Reno
For a town this walkable, transit is thin: about 2.7 trips an hour at the evening peak near the typical resident, next to 4.5 in Reno. Sparks grades B for jobs and income and A− for walkability. About one in five work in Sparks; the top destination outside it is Reno (50%, 7 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Sparks: the gist
More than half of Sparks works in Reno
27,221 working residents, 50%, have their main job in Reno, 7.4 miles away across the town line. That’s twice as many as work in Sparks itself. The commute map ↓
Most Sparks residents work close to home
70% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. How far ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
How Sparks earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Sparks is better than 62% of U.S. towns, #8 of 42 in Nevada. Job access by car holds Sparks’ grade up (ahead of 71% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (5.2%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Sparks could be anywhere from B− to B+.
The towns that employ Sparks’ residents
Where Sparks clocks in
50% of workers
2% of workers
2% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
How far Sparks’ workers travel
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
How many people are in Sparks by day
On a workday 42,263 residents head out to work, 12,378 work right here, and 33,268 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.84 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
What work there is in Sparks: 45,646 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sparks, 2013 → 2023: 34,603 → 45,646. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Sparks’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 24 minutes to work from Sparks
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sparks workers work from home, vs 12% across Nevada. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 50,682 commuters (the 11% who work from home are left out). Across Nevada: 80% drive alone, 3% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Sparks is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sparks is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns, #15 of 42 in Nevada. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 4.6% across Nevada.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 56,984 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 47% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 14% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 2.7 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 74% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 4.7% of Sparks households have no vehicle (Nevada 7.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Sparks’ commuters take a bus or train.
These are town averages; neighborhoods differ.
For jobs and income, Sparks is 188th of 382 U.S. towns of 78,000 to 151,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lakeville MN | 79,270 | $139K | 2.9% | 2.0% | 11% | A+ |
| 2 | Plymouth MN | 78,942 | $137K | 4.3% | 2.3% | 12% | A+ |
| 3 | South Jordan UT | 87,614 | $134K | 3.7% | 2.4% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 186 | Conroe TX | 119,564 | $76K | 11.2% | 3.9% | 23% | B |
| 187 | Manteca CA | 96,693 | $97K | 9.5% | 5.8% | 12% | B |
| 188 | Sparks NV | 111,902 | $89K | 8.5% | 5.2% | 23% | B |
| 189 | Auburn AL | 85,113 | $64K | 25.4% | 3.2% | 44% | B |
| 190 | Cranston RI | 84,647 | $90K | 10.2% | 6.1% | 16% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 382 | Flint MI | 79,306 | $38K | 34.1% | 14.8% | 20% | D |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Sparks, the top three, the last and three more from Nevada.
52% of Sparks works in a bordering town
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Sparks workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sparks | – | B | A− | 24 min | $89,056 |
| Spanish Springs | 2% | A | C− | 33 min | $127,658 |
| Reno | 50% | B− | A | 20 min | $80,760 |
| Sun Valley | under 1% | C+ | B+ | 26 min | $77,446 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Reno. Darker towns draw more of Sparks’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Sparks: questions
What is the median household income in Sparks?
$89,056 (±$2,599) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $78,260 across Nevada and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sparks?
8.5%, against 12.4% across Nevada and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sparks?
24 minutes each way on average, against 25 across Nevada and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sparks work?
23% work in town.
Is Sparks walkable?
Sparks is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 10.2 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sparks without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. 14% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sparks, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sparks
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.